


For My Bleeding Heart

by CourierNinetyTwo



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: F/F, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-23
Updated: 2017-06-23
Packaged: 2018-11-18 02:03:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11281455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CourierNinetyTwo/pseuds/CourierNinetyTwo
Summary: Makoto crashes at Ann's apartment after a fight in Shinjuku. Delinquent!Makoto AU.





	For My Bleeding Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Commissioned by Jess!

Makoto looked awful. 

That was saying something, considering the older girl usually cut a striking figure both in and out of school with an oversized Shujin jacket and heavy boots, but right now Ann was hard-pressed to focus on anything but Makoto's face when her nose and lip were both thoroughly busted. The bleeding had slowed to a trickle after half a box of tissues, but it had to hurt a lot, especially since Makoto had set her nose back into alignment herself. One of Ann's hands carefully set an ice pack against it while the other was occupied by her phone, looking up the proper treatment.

"Why didn't you go to see Dr. Takemi?" Ann asked, frowning when all the articles she found said to contact a physician.

"Takemi told me I'd broken my nose too many times." Makoto's voice sounded weird, almost muted, but then again, she was pretty much forced to breathe through her mouth at this point. "Told me to start fighting with my face less instead of coming into the clinic."

"Well, I'll do my best, babe." It wasn't the first time she'd seen Makoto on the wrong side of a fight, but the shock never quite faded away. "Who was it this time?"

"I was in Shinjuku when this drunk guy started bothering one of the salon girls. He was being real loud about it and then he grabbed her..." Makoto hesitated, eyes falling away from Ann's. "So I went for him. Turns out he was an off-duty cop."

Ann dropped the ice pack right into Makoto's lap, which made them both jump before she scrambled to pick it up again. The inside of her palm was numb with cold, Makoto's face was starting to bruise, and she couldn't believe what she had just heard. "A _cop_? Makoto, you were lucky he didn't arrest you."

"He tried, actually." Nudging Ann's fingers away, Makoto held the ice pack in place herself. "Except then he saw my ID and recognized my last name. He said he knew my father."

It took a few deep breaths before Ann found the strength to speak again. She knew how sensitive Makoto was about her father's death, and that kind of reminder after losing a fight was literally insult to injury. "So he let you off the hook." 

"Yes." Makoto muttered. "I guess I was lucky. If he'd known Sae instead, I would probably be walked to and from school every day now." 

Ann wasn't so sure about that. With the frequency that Makoto got into fights, no amount of midnight laundry runs or concealer could keep it from view. The only reason she hadn't been kicked out of Shujin was that her grades made several of the teachers look good, and they could avert their eyes as long as nothing happened on school grounds. Although she'd only met Sae once, Ann felt like every time she ever jaywalked or smoked after class had been written all over her face under the weight of that steely gaze. The idea that she was oblivious to her younger sister's 'extracurriculars' seemed almost impossible. 

If it made Makoto feel better, though, she wouldn't say it out loud. 

"You've got to be more careful, though, okay?" Better to focus on the present than all of the other things that could go wrong. "I know you protect the girls down there and Lala loves your company at the bar, but you already got picked up once before." 

Makoto's gaze hardened, sharp as glass. "I don't regret that. Kamoshida deserved it for what he tried to do to you."

"Of course he did." Given the opportunity, Ann would have beaten him until he couldn't stand, but being knocked out and tied up in the equipment closet for a whole day and night had left Kamoshida shaken enough to take an extended leave of absence. She hoped he never came back. "But the only reason you got out of that is that he was sure a guy on the track team had done it." 

"That was to salvage his ego. I didn't even disguise my voice." A huff of amusement left Makoto's lips, but then she winced. "I wonder if Takemi would give me stitches if I doubled her fee." 

Ann's stomach did a nervous flip at the thought of even trying stitches; she had a sewing repair kit for her clothes on shoots, but was ninety percent sure the needles in that were not meant to be used on people. "Maybe a shower would help clear your head?"

"No. I..." Again Makoto's eyes slid away; it was the most obvious tell that she had been hiding something. Her heart wasn't just on her sleeve, it was pinned there and lit up in neon. "My ribs hurt too much to wash up right now." 

"Your ribs?" She hadn't even tried to take Makoto's jacket off, assuming the worst had showed from the blood staining her turtleneck, the raw state of the first two knuckles on both hands. "Makoto, you've got to let me see. How many times did he hit you?" 

"Enough." Makoto said softly, setting the melted ice-pack aside. 

Still, she didn't argue as Ann slowly pulled off her jacket, folding it over the arm of the couch before gingerly peeling the hem of her shirt upward. She didn't even reach Makoto's bra before finding a swollen blue bruise along one side, the edges dappled with green and purple. Hissing through her teeth in sympathy, Ann checked Makoto's back too, although that seemed to be the worst of it. Unfortunately, the worst was still pretty bad; she was surprised nothing had been broken.

"My mom has a bunch of leftover meds from her surgeon." Ann declared, sure neither one of her parents were home often enough to bother checking the number of pills in the cabinet. "Let me get you a couple." 

A few minutes later, she had a pair of white pills and a full glass of ice water, hoping the cold would ease the pain in Makoto's mouth while she drank it down. By the time the glass was empty, the worst of the wincing seemed to be fading away, but Ann's worries hadn't passed with it. She kept Makoto's hand locked in hers, silence falling around them as she leaned against one shoulder -- on the side without bruised ribs.

"Thank you." Makoto finally said, sounding stiff. "You shouldn't have had to do this."

"That's what I get for dating the toughest girl in school, huh?" Ann tried to keep her tone light, even as she squeezed Makoto's fingers tighter. "But you better be careful. I can't kiss you if you keep busting your lip."

It was a joke -- almost -- but she was surprised to see red eyes widen, a faint blush coloring Makoto's face. Ann much preferred that pink tint to the other colors covering it right now. "Do you mean that?"

"Well, I guess I could try." Tilting her head to bring their mouths closer together, Ann stopped just a centimeter shy of a kiss. "But I don't want to hurt you."

She heard Makoto swallow hard, and counted down from three in her head before bridging that distance, kissing the older girl softly as she could. Gentle or not, the contact had to sting, but when one of Makoto's hands grabbed at her shoulder, Ann knew she didn't want her to pull away. Iron and ash lingered on the back of Makoto's tongue, but she welcomed the salt and brimstone bitterness, staying close until both of them were breathing hard.

"It would be awful if we had to stop doing that," Ann murmured against Makoto's mouth, "wouldn't it?"

Makoto nodded, but a small smile followed. "There's a book about that, you know."

She should have expected that as a response; Makoto devoured texts in her spare time, even if was usually behind the Crossroads counter. "What book?" 

" _Lysistrata_. It's Greek." When Ann raised an eyebrow, she continued. "The main character convinces every woman she can to stop sleeping with their lovers so they'll stop fighting for no reason and sign a peace treaty." 

The image made her laugh, but Ann's grin turned victorious. "See, I'm just following a time-honored tradition."

"I like it better when we break tradition." Makoto countered, and Ann let out a yelp as she was suddenly pulled into the older girl's lap.

"You're still hurt, you jerk." With both her hands grasping at Makoto's shoulders instead of pushing them away, Ann knew it wasn't the most convincing protest in the world, but she'd still given a token effort. "That means not straining your ribs by picking me up."

"What should I do with all this pent-up energy, then?" Even while bruised and wounded, Makoto's charm never skipped a beat, and months together hadn't made Ann any more immune to it.

Of course, that didn't mean she couldn't retaliate. 

"How about you just lay back..." Her palms pressed forward until Makoto was sprawled against the cushions. "And let me take care of that?"

"How are you going to--"

When Ann dropped onto her knees in front of the couch, Makoto's jaw dropped, cutting her words short. 

In the weeks that followed, Ann realized her powers of persuasion must have worked -- after that, Makoto never split her lip again.

\--

 

 


End file.
